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Originally Posted by westcoastinvader
At last count I knew there were 25+ world tracks racing on surfaces other than dirt.
Two in the racing history bastion of Kentucky, and two in California...a state with a decent racing history of racing legend of it's own.
Rachel Alexandra has won over a synthetic surface at Keeneland.
Zenyatta won a stakes over a dirt surface at Oaklawn.
And Zenyatta and her connections agreed to meet Rachel Alexandra and crew on their stated surface of "comfort" in the Apple Blossom on dirt. Rachel Alexandra's crew had 7 months between her early September Woodward Stakes win and the Apple Blossom. They could have certainly devised an effective training regimen for Rachel Alexandra to race at top ability by April of her four year old season.
If they really wanted to.
That "synthetic surface versus dirt surface" argument for Rachel Alexandra's connections does not hold water either.
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Sure they had 7 months in which they "could have" prepared, but that is also ignoring the fact that she may have needed the time. (If you recall, Zenyatta was also given 7 months off leading into 2009.) Also, and stated here repeatedly, Zenyatta was retired (though training beautifully) until the second week of January - so the target of the Apple Blossom for them to meet up wasn't stated until that time and Rachel had yet to post a work.
Nice post by Rollo above.